Backordering without showing interest

Will checking the whois record tip off tasters that someone wants the name?

[matt900]

I've been backordering quite a few dropping names recently and I've initially lost several, only to have them successfully captured about 5 days later. I'm assuming that someone is tasting the name and then dropping it when they see that there is no traffic. Every one that I lost was to someone with a name like "Example Domains"...not to a person or non-domain related company.

I was wondering if by monitoring the domain and checking the whois record to see if it is dropping again, will I be tipping off the person that someone is interested in the name, causing them to keep the name? I never actually type the URL into my browser and visit the site, but only check the whois data through another site.

[Laker]

I think it could have been more likely that placing a backorder could tip off someone, several years ago -- before registrars got greedy and competed against their own customers :-o

It used to be that even the biggest backorder services would only accept one backorder for a domain name. Today, very few are still that way ... now, more often than not, a backorder is placed, but if the name is successfully grabbed it goes into an auction ... so it may be the deepest pockets who win, not the early bird.

[EDIT] On rereading this, I'm not sure I replied to your question ... "does checking through whois tip someone off". Interestingly, there's one whois service I've always avoided, just because I had this nagging suspicion in the back of my mind ...

The more rational side of me says "naaa" -- after all there are likely tens of thousands of whois searches done per day ... and then, there is a little voice that says "'ya never know ... anything can be tracked ..."

[edited by: Laker at 7:28 pm (utc) on Aug. 31, 2007]

[planetdomain]

This is very common.

Around 90% of all domain registrations these days are tasters. I had to try recovering some domains thru a back-order service a few months ago (customer decided to renew after redemption), however our back-order provider could only get one of the domains initially, the other domain domain was tasted by three different registrars before dropping, and we ended up registering it normally (so clearly they saw no value in that particular domain)

I suspect that most deleting domains will be snapped by tasters/back-orders regardless of whether the domain had much traffic (how can they tell without trying it out, there isn't a lot to lose anyway), and if the site has little value to them, they usually let go of it.

Due to the increased number of players in the tasting game, it is extremely difficult to snap a name, you're talking about 10 or more different registrars with massive computational power and network connectivity competing for a domain that will be registered within miliseconds of deletion.

I think the best approach is to try more than one back-order provider to increase the likleyhood of success.

[gmac17]

what i think would be very valuable would be a service by the registrars that would "grab" domains in line behind a snap. $60 for a snap, but normal price for anyone in line behind that.

There are a lot of names I would buy for $7 but not for $60. Right now i have to set an alert on #*$! and wait until nobody snaps it and it gets tasted a few times.

If moniker had a system that was their normal price that would allow you to pick up names that aren't snapped / tasted they would probably have a lot more of my money.

[matt900]

Thanks for the responses. I was thinking that checking the whois wouldn't directly tip someone off by showing interest, but some names I've lost kind of baffle me. I see them go to a domain collector, when it doesn't seem like a very valuable name with any traffic. Some names were previously just held, but not developed and without any back links, etc. Usually the names I'm looking at are slight variations of other names I plan to develop, but I can't imagine ANY traffic already going to these names.

I was just trying to determine why certain non-generic names might be thought of as valuable to someone else who possibly looks at thousands of other names a day. That's where I thought that by back ordering or checking the whois record several times, I might inadvertently be making them think it was more valuable.

Any other thoughts about this theory?

[stu2]

I think most whois records get updated with the last time the whois record was accessed. This might well be a signal someone is interested if the date is very recent. Since a taster can only hold the domain for 5 days, I'd only do a whois lookup every, 6, 11, 17, 23 days etc.

[Laker]

I think most whois records get updated with the last time the whois record was accessed.

The WhoIs record database is updated (usually) each day by the Registry that holds that domain extension.

Individual lookups in whois don't update the database.

Some companies/services that maintain their own "mirror" of whois records can have their database updated by subscribers -- however that doesn't affect the Registry whois record -- only their copy of it.